Good Faith Remediation
Support HB 1794 by Geren – Harless – Burkett – Longoria
Texas House Committee on Environmental Regulation
Tuesday, March 17 2015 at 8:00am
Capitol Extension Room E1.026
Please attend the hearing and sign a card in support of HB1794, or send a representative to do so. This bill is a major component of the League’s 2015 Legislative Program, and will be heard Tuesday morning.
Recent lawsuits have sought to collect hundreds of millions of dollars of civil penalties against Texas businesses for alleged environmental violations going back for decades—even though the businesses have been working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to remediate the problem and, in some cases, did not even own the property when the alleged violations occurred. In one of the cases, a jury rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the business should pay billions even though it spent millions to clean up a mess that it inherited from another company. The proposed legislation will address this type of lawsuit abuse by assuring that businesses pay punitive civil penalties only for their own intentional conduct, not for the actions of others. The legislation will also assure that businesses that remediate in good faith will not be punished as long as they comply with applicable enforcement orders.
COMMITTEE: Environmental Regulation
TIME & DATE: 8:00 AM, Tuesday, March 17, 2015
PLACE: E1.026
CHAIR: Rep. Geanie Morrison
| HB 281 Simmons Relating to a limitation on the expansion of certain landfills. |
| HB 1146 Kacal Relating to persons who may operate a public water supply system. |
| HB 1269 Springer Relating to supplemental environmental projects implemented by certain local governments in lieu of administrative penalties assessed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. |
| HB 1284 Simmons Relating to the review by certain governmental entities of a permit application for a solid waste facility. |
| HB 1794 Geren | et al. Relating to maximum penalties for certain environmental violations. |
Texas House and Senate Witness Registration is the quick and simple new way to register for a committee hearing. The 5-step registration process is completed by using one of the touch screen kiosk stations located in the Capitol Extension. You can choose to save your profile information to use for future hearings. You can also register when logged into the local Capitol wifi system. IMPORTANT : Your witness registration process will go much faster if you create your profile in advance at https://www.mytxlegis.legis.state.tx.us/hwrspublic/default.aspx.
When you arrive at the Capitol, be prepared by knowing:
- Your correct login and password information, as created above (or allow extra time to set up your account)
- The correct bill number
- In which committee hearing the bill is being heard
- The time and location of the hearing
